Below is the statement released by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister, Wong Kan Seng, over the security lapse yesterday at Changi airport’s budget terminal.
Read about the story here.
Minister Wong’s statement:
‘I AM totally appalled and flabbergasted at this slip-up at the airport checkpoint.
The officers who failed to spot the discrepancy between the name in the man’s passport and on his boarding pass, will be taken to task.
But this will not be enough. I have been reminding officers of the need for vigilance repeatedly after each lapse of human error. Obviously the message is not sinking in deep enough to the last man.
I want all the heads of departments in the Home Team to directly take charge and step up checks to ensure vigilance on the ground at all levels and leave no room for complacency. They will have to do whatever it takes to get this going.
Just last week, I had directed the Ministry HQ’s Homefront Security Division to work with all the departments to review their security systems and processes. This may take time but we will get it done as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, all the heads of department will be calling up their subordinate commanders and managers and tightening scrutiny and supervision on the ground.
Each of the 26,000-plus officers in the Home Team has a sworn duty to do his or her job well. They deal with more than 350,000 people each day in the line of duty.
Mistakes will happen occasionally, but the Home Team has to keep these to the absolute minimum, especially where the potential consequences are extremely serious. They clearly cannot afford to be complacent, and must stay alert at all times.
There is no other way if they are to remain effective and not disappoint Singaporeans who put their trust in the Home Team to keep them safe. Any lapse by any department in the Home Team is a failure which all in the Home Team family must bear.’
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Dear Westin and Patriot,
Pack and go where ? Go west – you are 2nd class? Go East – you are despised ?
The ugly Singaporean image from top down is well reported in Asia.
Go and it may be good ridden for you – foreign parent babies are making their impact here already.
Fight to change the mindsets of the Govt – for a better deal for all Singaporeans – it will be very sad indeed when common Singaporeans are relegated to 2nd class in their own country.
Start by supporting the TOC; the present opposition is disappointing so far, what else? Do not go away and let foreigners take your rightful place; FT are already beginning to like this place so much that their numbers are swelling , soon to be in millions. Do not give up. This is your home.
To lim on June 24th, 2008 12.04 pm, and TheOwl,
wanted to carry on the conversation you had about rotation of personnel at the top.
i think it was Cherian George who wrote about Singapore’s model of rotating 2nd-tier leaders (minister of state, deputy ministers, etc) and its impact on the government, in his book, “Singapore – The Air Conditioned Nation”. What he wrote echoed the thoughts of my company’s global CEO.
My CEO dont believe in putting 3-year contracts, or rotating leadership within the organisation. He felt that it will lead to – the first year, the leader will just be doing a handover, second year of keeping “the lights on”, and third year, the process of handing over to the next person.
it will lead to, according to him, complacency and maintaining status quo. There will be no sense of ownership, responsibility and wanting to change things for the better. Senior execs must be given a permanent post, they must lead, given ownership, and a set objective of achieving improvement.
This is where i think our system failed. the various dept heads in MHA tend to be anonymous. much lower ranks are not empowered to make decisions. They just do what they’re told – and wont go beyond what is expected of them. Decision making is always pushed up. No reward system – but there is a drastic punishment system.
This is the root of all these issues. If the public calls for WKS to resign, there shouldnt be any surprises. Because he has structured his Ministry to be like the way it is. He didnt motivate his people to be highly responsible and having ownership of their departments.
I guess it leads back to complacency – and very clearly – complacency on WKS part, and the whole rank and file of leaders under him.
not a fan of lim,
I read all that with the analogies, the logic, the stuff and ya da. I like the idea that all it takes is just one incident, but there are lots of cases that go through the net that no one is aware of.
What do we do about them, should we hold someone accountable for these? How systemic are systemic faults? For someone that gets caught trying to smuggle himself or herself in, there might be others that didn’t get caught.
Not suggesting that the someone shouldn’t take responsbility, but I like to know your stand or opinion on WKS or whatever because I didnt seem to see so in the few posts
@ aygee, Every CEO has a certain style of doing things, and it also depends on the nature of the job.
The purpose of a contract , example 3 to 5 years, is actually a probation in the long term sense, for the CEO to evaluate a person’s performance. It is also a “means” to terminate or move the person to another department because the CEO has another person in mind who is only available at a later date. The CEO in the mean time has to make do with the best that the company can hire.
The potential of any company is generally decided by the type of people it hires. Talented people will be selective of the company they intend to work in. It is important to have real talent at the helm to attract talent.
Otherwise, any amount of job rotation will not have a positive impact because there was a lack of talent in the first place.
Singapore is run like a business and the objective is profits. The people have to accept full responsibility for giving this government the mandate for 40+ years.
The people have to ask themselves, is WKS competent in the first place ? even though we know he is complacent. Are there other incompetent ministers like WKS ?
I believe there are many senoir staff in the different ministries who have been bypassed for promotion over the years. How did people like Ng Eng Hen, Vivian B, Raymond Lim, Lim Swee Say, etc,etc, get selected over those very senoir staff ? Surely there has to be a psychological impact on them and the rest of the organization. I see this problem in my company when several dubious talents parachute-in and assume control.
Can we actually believe that Hen, a cardio specialist all his life and probably managing less than 10 staff , can be talent spotted to take charge of the MOM with hundred thousands of jobs at stake. In the first place , many of us have not heard of him, even when he was a cardio specialist. What about Vivian B ? An eye specialist. How many of you actually know who he was before his engagement in politics ? I will leave it to other netizens to carry on with the other so called ‘talent’ in this government.
Do you see anyone with inspiring leadership qualities ? Or did I miss something ?
Who does the PM have to answer to..the people or his own
This is what happens when you didn’t punish the right people for the earlier security lapse!!!
I just see a lot of oratorical hot air. So this is the type of million dollar minister we have, his job entails telling people what they already know? Impressive. So we want to peg pay practices to the industry huh? Where is the pay cut for screwing up big time numerous times?!
This third irresponsible slip-shot within 4 months speaks loud and clear of PM Lee’s defence for WKS in the parliament. From then on, all ministers need not be held responsible for anything that goes wrong within the purview and responsibility of their ministries.
Easy pay and easy job. How wonderful!
More irresponsible acts will be in the making. Just watch and see.
I urged people here to read the book “The Speed of Trust” by Stephen Covey Jr.
Credibility, competency go hand in hand to make you trust worthy. The leadership must show its determination and desire to uphold its highest standard. Any respectable leader who fails will own it up instead of shifting blame. Not to say that there were at least 8 reported failures (by Copyman June 24):
2004 – Huang Na’s killer escaped on toilet break under police custody.
2006 – Tan Chor Jin (One-Eyed Dragon) escaped to Malaysia, allegedly on a fake passport.
2006 – NKF Richard Yong managed to flee to Hong Kong.
2008 – Mas Selamat Kastari – toilet break again.
2008 – Two detainees’ attempted escape frorm Subordinate Court.
2008 – Ng Ting Hwa, the employee who siphoned almost S$2m from his company, fled to Malaysia when he’s under investigation.
2008 – Gurkhas’ scuffle over salary.
2008 – A retiree unintentionally bypassed Changi Airport’s security using his son’s passport.
Singaporeans opened their mouths ‘wa’ ‘oops’ on every such occasion but after a while, fall back to inertai and silence. And we vote or’ forced to vote via walk-over’ for another term by the same team. My lament: when do we actually learn from our own mistakes of inertia, non-involvement and keeping muted; leaving status-quo.
It is actually our own mistake and responsibilities.